Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson is an English actress.

Biography[]

Born in Paddington, London to actress Phyllida Law, she studied at Cambridge where she was a member of Footlights alongside Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie and was later cast in the touring version of Not the Nine O'Clock News, later playing a number of roles in various sketch shows. In 1987 she received a BAFTA for Best Actress and soon after made her screen debut in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V.

Thompson soon became recognised as a comic and serious actress in film, and received two Academy Award nominations in one year for Remains of the Day and In the Name of the Father respectively. She later appeared in box office blockbusters such as the Harry Potter and Nanny McPhee series.

Singing[]

Thompson has a number of singing roles to her name both onscreen and stage, beginning her stage debut at the Leicester Haymarket in Me and My Girl, before moving on to television comedies such as Alfresco (where she duetted on a number of Beatles songs) and the film Peter's Friends, where she sang in the group numbers "Orpheus in the Underground" and "The Way You Look Tonight".

She later worked with Pixar and sang on the soundtrack of Brave, as well as in Saving Mr. Banks, where she sang the classic Mary Poppins song "Let's Go Fly a Kite". In 2014 she made her return to musical theatre as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and would appear as Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast.